The Hatter M : The Looking Glass Wars series is a spin off series of the New Times bestselling series, The Looking-Glass Wars. It is written by the famous American author of the original series, Frank Beddor. He was assisted by author Liz Cavalier for writing limited comic book series. Ben Templesmith helped with the artwork related to the series. The graphic novel series consists of a total of 5 books, which were released between the years 2008 and 2015. Author Beddor has described in this interesting series, the search of Hatter Madigan for the disappeared princess. Thus, it goes on to maintain the continuity of the actual series. The search of Hatter Madigan follows the virtually unseen events over 13 years between 1859 and 1872. With the publication of the fifth book, the mini series is said have been completed and collected in the form of trade paperbacks. There is also a special issue additionally written in the series by author Beddor. This issue is comprised of answers to several frequently asked questions based on the series. In the second volume of the series, Ben Templesmith is replaced by the Finnish artist named Sami Makkonen for the art work. He seems to have used a dynamic and frenetic approach for the storytelling. As the series moves on, Hatter Madigan goes on to explore America at the time of the Civil War. He appears very much committed to one of the asylums. Hatter continues with his duties as a Royal Bodyguard in the third book and follows the setting sun’s Glow into the wild west of America in search of the lost princess of Wonderland.

The adventures of Hatter during his search, include the tracking of Black Imagination through the Barbay Coast of San Francisco. It also includes a vision quest of the shaman into the Grand Canyon. While passing through these adventures, Hatter Madigan comes across some astounding clues that unravel some haunting facts from his own past life. For helping him with the development of the plots of this comic series, author Beddor commissioned artist Doug Chiang. He asked him to create artwork of the people and places based on his descriptions in the series. Author Beddor says that he had a lot of help while developing the series as he was joined by concept artist on one hand and on the other, he had the original stories of Lewis Carroll. Throughout the series, Hatter Madigan is often referred to as the ‘Mad Hatter’. This character first appeared in the original novel by Lewis Carroll, Alice Adventures in Wonderland. In that book, he explains to Alice that he always drinks tea along with March Hare. In various other illustrations also, he is often shown sipping tea from a teacup. Hatter has a large hat on his head. Even though it was common during author Carroll’s time for the hatters to die because of mercury poisoning, he has not described Hatter a having any mercury poisoning symptoms. The most common symptoms to find out mercury poisoning include diffidence, low self confidence, timidity, anxiety, increasing shyness, unobservity, etc. Very often, it is claimed that the character of Hatter is based on a furniture dealer named Theophilus Carter. This character appears in a number of Hollywood films. One of the actors famous for taking Hatter’s role is Johnny Depp in a 2010 movie, in which he is named as Tarrant Hightopp.

One of the most successful books of the series is entitled ‘Mad With Wonder’. The Automatic publishing released this book in the year 2009. At the start of this book, Hatter Madigan is depicted as continuing with his maniacal conquest of finding Alyss in the mad world, being the Royal Bodyguard. He goes on to follow the Glow coming from London to the American Civil War battlefields. Hatter wants to find the Princess as soon as possible because he knows that she is going to become the Queen very soon. And he does not want Alyss remain absent from her crowning ceremony. During his quest, Hatter encounters America in the form of wounded, boiling, and sprawling landscape full of energy and innocence. The beautiful country is getting torn apart because of the war. In spite of such a challenging situation, Hatter Madigan is required to keep his cool and sanity. He must not go insane in the malestorm of child healers, deranged outlaws, holy rollers, snake handlers, and southern belles. As he moves ahead in his search, Hatter finds that he is not the only one from Wonderland who has come to this Promised Land. Later on, he comes to know that the Civil War is getting fueled by the black imagination of Queen Redd, who is threatening the world through her evil activities. The book went on to become a great success and motivated author Bodder to focus on developing the next interesting books. Bodder was appreciated by the critics for his excellent depictions and descriptions. On the whole, the novel appears to be an interesting read with its exciting twists and turns.

One of the other books published in the series is titled as ‘Zen of Wonder’. It was also released by the Automatic Publishing in 2013. The starting sequence of the novel shows that Hatter’s search for the princess Alyss moves on to an unexpected detour within the country. He gets guided by an often maddening and mischievous young girl called Nekko. Hatter finds that the origin of Nekko is a ‘Zen’ mystery, but he sees that she is devoted from her heart in an unwavering way in his quest to discover Alyss. Following the kidnapping of his Hat by Nekko, Hatter is fearlessly lead on a chase through the rooftops of the 1871 San Francisco. The turn of events with Nekko make Hatter acknowledge Nekko as a teacher. Hatter finds written somewhere that the teacher will come out when she sees you are ready. But for him, the teacher is a girl aged 12 and he being a Royal Bladesman, the events only make the people around them laugh. Later, Nekko and Hatter go on an adventure across the fire ring after tracking down a samurai sword having connection of the Wonderland to the styling, hip hop crime boss from 19th century San Francisco named Missy Tong, and her outspoken protege named Lil’ Dick. Hatter undergoes a stowaway trip on board a Chinese ship and reaches the Hawaiian Islands. There, he finds a surfboard that becomes his vehicle to achieve illumination. His search then takes him to Japan, where he comes across schoolhouse demons, Manga, Cosplay, noodles, Chikao gang, as well as a lost brother from a different world. Just like the previous book, this book too goes on to have an interesting end.

All Gabriel Allon fans will be eagerly anticipating this one - your favourite spy is back in The New Girl, coming to bookshelves in mid-July. In this one, a girl is kidnapped from an exclusive private school in Switzerland and Gabriel Allon is brought on board to find her. More Details.

Recommendations

Every 2 weeks we send out an e-mail with 6-8 Book Recommendations. We'll base this on various factors for example "If you like Jack Reacher..." or "If you like short stories in the horror genre". Insert your e-mail below to start getting these recommendations.

MISSING A BOOK?

I do my best to make sure the book lists are complete and current, but due to human or machine error while attempting to keep 3000+ authors up to date, the occasional book can be missed or will be listed under an alternate title. If you see one missing just send me an e-mail below. Thanks!

Author / Series

Book(s)

Featured Series

if you are a fan of Jack Reacher you need to read the "Peter Ash" series by Nick Petrie. Endorsed by Lee Child himself, this is a fantastic book series and is the best recommendation I can give for any fans of Reacher. More details.

Featured Author

If you’re a fan of standalone thrillers then be sure to read any of the standalones by Brad Parks. The guy is a master! I’ve read over 50 different authors of standalone thrillers in the last year and no-one stands out like Brad. More Details.

Did You Know…

In 1994, Brad Meltzer co-wrote the original swearing-in oath that is taken by AmeriCorps members, and has been delivered by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.